Poison of the Deepest Mind
by stormthebirds37
Summary: Neferet takes it too far and poisons Shaylin. It's fatal, and there's nothing anybody can do - and although Shaylin feels alone, she finds comfort in the least expected place. *NOW UP FOR ADOPTION*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – Okay, this is the equivalent to a boring prologue, but I have to say this so here goes. Don't give up on me yet!**

**Firstly, this is after Hidden, so don't read anything else if you haven't read that far…because there are spoilers from here on out and I don't want to ruin it for you. Needless to say, these warnings never stopped me, so I definitely understand if you sneak a glance below.**

**This fic takes place in a sort of alternate HON world. For one, Neferet hasn't been shunned and is still at the HON, wreaking havoc. Zoey and the "nerd herd" (when was the last time you heard that term?) are trying to prove to the Council that she's evil, but the Council won't listen.**

**Zoey and her friends live at the HON in the dorimitories. Red Vampyres are allowed at the school, but treated like outcasts by staff and teachers. So is Aphrodite, being human. The depot tunnels never were used by the nerd herd. **

**Oh. This is a biggy. Are you ready? *SPOILERS. BELIEVE ME, YOU DON'T WANT THIS ONE.* Jack didn't die. *TOLD YOU…* Damien saved him. Thanks for reading (if you did) and I hope you enjoy. **

**Oh, and this fic is centered around Shaylin, so I hope you don't mind. I know she's not a favourite character, so I thought I should just say that. Enjoy **


	2. Chapter 2

**SHAYLIN'S POV**

"Zoey, the High Council needs proof of Neferet's treachery. If you do not supply us with enough, we cannot shun her!"

The Vampyres were very persistent. Zoey had been trying to talk them into shunning Neferet for about two hours now, and both sides were on the verge of giving up.

"Z, maybe you should try again another time," Damien whispered into her ear. Jack, who was clinging onto Damien's arm, nodded in agreement.

"I can't!" she argued, so loudly the Vampyres (who were on Skype, by the way) turned and looked our way. "I can't just give up when it's so clear that Neferet's using Darkness as her consort!"

The High Council shook their heads and their video feed went blank.

Zoey practically roared and stormed out of the room. We were all surprised by her reaction, but then again, it wasn't really a shock if you thought about it. She'd spent days preparing for the call, and when it came, she'd put all her best points across. They would've swayed me if I was on the Council. Only Thanatos had looked somewhat troubled.

"Shaylin," Stevie Rae was saying, "how's that True Sight of yours work again?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just look at somebody and I can see all their colours."

"Colours," Stevie Rae repeated, apparently wanting me to elaborate. I couldn't, really.

"Yeah," I replied. "Like their true essence or something."

Stevie Rae looked momentarily miffed, which wasn't a look I was used to seeing on my High Priestess. Finally, she said, "Well, the Council knows about your gift. Why not just tell them what you see in Neferet?"

It was so painfully obvious we all had to laugh. "I guess," I said.

"Hey, hold up," Shaunee interrupted, being (strangely) the voice of reason. Everyone kept telling her she was "so different" but I'd never seen her as a "Twin." It kinda scared me to think about how brainless she must've been. "They won't necessarily trust Shaylin's deciphering of her Sight."

Aphrodite sighed, reminding me she was there. Despite my efforts, we just didn't seem to get along. I wasn't sure why, either. I didn't know what I had done to her. All I'd ever done was be nice, but maybe that was what she hated. "No, brainless, of course they won't. That's why _I _need to be there."

Shaunee grumbled slightly, but like me, she ignored the insult. "Yeah, I guess they'd trust you."

That just made my view of the Council go down even farther.

The door to Zoey's dorm (where we were) slowly opened and Zoey returned. "Hey," she muttered. "Sorry. It was just frustrating."

"Z, we came up with a plan," Stevie Rae said immediately and proceeded to tell her the ideas.

Zoey smacked herself in the face. "That's so obvious. Why didn't I think of that? Okay, we need to get Neferet in here and the Council back on video."

So we did just that. When we finally got the High Council back, they agreed to our request, simply because they'd be able to tell if Aphrodite lied to them. Zoey tracked down Neferet and pulled her inside, saying the Council wished to speak with her. Not even Neferet could escape that one without being shunned, and she didn't want that…yet.

"Okay, Shaylin. Read away," Thanatos instructed me, and I did.

**NEFERET'S POV, EARLIER THAT DAY**

"_Don't you realize that that girl with True Sight is a danger to you? Haven't you considered this?"_

I growled at Darkness. For such an evil thing it could be so simpleminded. "Of course I have," I said. The white bull seemed to flash irritably. "But what do I do about it? She will not rise against me without friends, and Zoey may not trust her yet."

"_No, my Evil One, it is more than that. She intends to reveal you to the High Council. Now, if you would let me…I could assist you. But it would require a payment. Something large. Something with value."_

"Isn't my blood satisfying enough?" I asked innocently. "You know you may have as much of that as you wish."

I didn't get an answer, so I found a blade and cut my arms, all the way down. As the blood seeped from the wounds and the tendrils of Darkness danced, eager to feast, I said, "Darkness, hear my command. Feed on my blood and then grant me my request. Have a spell of protection placed on me, anyone that you wish, that will stop the girl from reading me and then permanently dispose of her."

As the tendrils lapped up my blood and I sank to my knees, the bull said, _"It is done. But, my Evil One, you should know that it is not fast. Since it is only your blood you have paid us with, the poison that will get into the girl's mind is slow acting…but it will kill her, eventually. This is your wish and that is your gift."_

**SHAYLIN'S POV, PRESENT**

I looked at Neferet, waiting to read her but…I don't really know what happened. I just couldn't.

But when I tried to focus on her, I found everything swayed out of control. The room began to spin and I couldn't think, I couldn't talk…

Spots danced before my eyes and I was aware of someone talking but I couldn't make out the words. _She did something to me. She did something to me._

Just before I passed out, I remembered what it was. I'd read about this in one of Damien's books. He always left them lying around and I liked to read. This fact applied to me and so I had remembered it but never worried about it. "Poison," I muttered and then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**ZOEY'S POV**

"Okay, Shaylin," Thanatos said, "Read away."

And Shaylin did. We all waited impatiently for the verdict, but it never came. Instead of telling us Neferet's "colours" or whatever, Shaylin adopted the thousand-yard stare. She wasn't even looking at Neferet anymore – it seemed like she was staring off into a void.

"Shaylin?" Stevie Rae asked gently. It vaguely crossed my mind that maybe Neferet's true colours were too horrible for the petite girl to say.

"Poison."

I barely heard the word come out of her mouth before she fell limp and dropped to the ground.

Immediately, all hell broke loose. Stevie Rae started yelling at Neferet – which she never dared to do – for doing this to Shaylin. Jack, scared out of his mind that Neferet would try to kill him again, clung on tight to Damien and wouldn't let him go. Shaunee backed up Stevie Rae, even saying some swear words and insults she'd only dared to use as a Twin. I didn't bother to tell her and she probably didn't notice. Aphrodite was calmly saying something, and it was probably a sarcastic comment but she was drowned out in the noise. Vaguely wishing Stark was here, I ran over to Shaylin and made sure she was still alive, which she was, but she wasn't responding to me.

Finally, Neferet simply walked out of the room.

Everybody went silent, and as we cautiously looked over at the computer screen, we saw it was black.

The High Council had disconnected.

"Alright," Stevie Rae sighed, finally getting control over herself, "What'd she say before she fell?"

"Poison," I repeated.

"Well, Neferet must've poisoned her or something," Shaunee deduced, and we all agreed. That much was obvious.

Slowly, Damien piped up, "I think I actually know what this is. I read once, in one of my Vampyre books, a small passage about True Sight. It said that that gift is rare, and almost impossible to corrupt, save one poison. The poison was called _Vrai Mort, _named by a French Vampyre who discovered it, and it means 'True Death.'

"That's great," Aphrodite said, and for a moment I thought I detected worry in her tone, but then she kept speaking and I quickly forgot. "What does it do, nerd boy?"

"Don't call Damien a nerd!" Jack piped up, carefully stepping out from behind Damien.

"Maybe I couldn't think of a better insult," Aphrodite muttered, so quietly only I heard her.

"True Death," Damien continued, lacing his fingers through Jack's, "takes about a month to fully activate. Slowly, it spreads across the mind, lacing itself in every part of the brain. You'll first find that she'll lose her sense of balance and basic motor functions. She'll start tripping a lot. Then will come the short term memory loss…then the long term. Soon she won't be able to remember anything at all except basic functions. Finally…"

He didn't seem able to continue. "It's okay," Stevie Rae whispered. "We have to know this."

"Finally," Damien said in a tone barely over a whisper. I had to stretch to hear him, "she won't eat. She'll refuse to sleep. She'll start forgetting even the most basic things. On her final day, she won't be able to talk because she won't remember English. And finally, she'll forget how to breathe. She will literally…suffocate herself."

I couldn't help but gasp. I glanced at Aphrodite to see her eyes filled with pain. This was even affecting her.

"What do we tell Shaylin?" I asked.

"It's her right to know," Shaunee said. "I know I'd want to."

"Know what?"

We all gave a start when we saw Shaylin, wide awake with her head in the air, her eyes filled with questions.


	4. Chapter 4

**ZOEY'S POV**

"Shaylin…," Stevie Rae began. "There's this thing called…True Death."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know. Neferet just gave it to me."

My eyes narrowed. "You know? How are you…I don't know, so calm?"

She shrugged. "I figured it out when my reading of her went strange. So what's to be worried about? I know what's going to happen and I know I'm going to die. So why should I cry about it?"

At that moment, I think, is when I really admired Shaylin's stamina and her steel. She never said much, and honestly I never really noticed her, but she was probably the bravest girl I'd met. There probably wasn't a cure for this thing, and she was acting like it was nothing.

"Shaylin," I finally decided, "What do you want to do for a month?"

She blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You have a month, right? So what do you want to do? The least we can do for you is let you do whatever you want."

She shrugged. "I want…I want it to be normal, I suppose. I don't want anyone to act strangely around me, and I want Neferet to think she hasn't affected us in any way."

A slow smile spread across her features, one that made her look somewhat like the Cheshire Cat. "And I want to do everything in my power to make Neferet's life hell."

Surprisingly, Aphrodite gave a sharp clap. _"Now_ you're making sense, girl."

We all had to laugh.

**A/N – Okay, I feel bad for this short chapter but I had to include it. Next time I'll write something more (or I'll try to) for you guys. Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	5. AUTHORS NOTE

**A/N – Okay, I do feel bad, but honestly I've just lost the spark of the story so I'm discontinuing it. But it's up for adoption, so anyone who wants it can have it! Really sorry guys. But if you want to continue it, ****please message me**** and the first person can take control of it. **


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